By Royal Demand

by Robyn Donald

  A faint spasm of nausea gripped her then ebbed. She didn't care she told herself stonily. Trying to sound composed and practical she said

  ‘lt doesn't matter. I've finished what I need to do' 1'11 go back to my room and work on it.'

  He said 'You don't know what I want.'

  Angry, because she felt a sneaking pleasure at the thought of spending time with him she cast a disparaging glance around the room-another appalling mess of fake Louis Quinze furniture amidst a riot of gilding and scrolls and very bad Victorian art. Anything would be better than this ' she said with crisp emphasis.

  He nodded and held open the door for her to leave. Almost ' he agreed. 6We'II go down to the study and discuss the way I want the place to look.'

  His study thankfully stripped of every bit of gimcrack trumpery came as a relief. The panelled walla glowed a warm, soft gold and the Renaissance chimneypiece that dominated the room was perfectly in keeping with a Gothic cupboard and another splendid ancestor this one in full arbour on a large menacing horse.

  Very appropriate ' Sara said significantly, nodding at the picture.

  He nodded gesturing to her to sit down in one of the big comfortable armchairs. ‘He was Alex the man who eventually became the first Prince of Illyria in our house. The suit of arbour is still in the corridor ' he said.

  ‘so there were princes before your ancestor took over'?' He nodded. Alex killed the previous one in hand-to-hand combat then reinforced his victory by marrying the dead Prince's daughter ' he said calmly.

  'What a splendid basis for a marriage' Sara spared a compassionate thought for the long-dead princess who'd been forced to marry her father's murderer.

  ‘By all accounts it was very happy ' Gabe said aloofly.

  Uneasy, because she hated the way he seemed able to read her mind she said stiffly 61 suppose it was better than dying.'

  He shrugged. 'she wouldn't have been killed. Her other alternative was a convent and from what the family stories tell of her character she'd have hated that. She and Alex had eight children and no one ever said anything about him taking a mistress.'

  The words hung in the air as Webster-not Marya Sara was glad to see-entered with a tray.

  ‘WiII you pour'?' Gabe asked when they were alone again.

  It was coffee. Just what she needed. She handed him a cup, black and sinful poured milk into her own and ignored the small cakes. Keep it professional she told herself.

  'ls this the sort of atmosphere you want in the bedrooms'?' she asked. 'Because if it is finding authentic furniture of the period is not only going to be difficult it's going to cost you a vast amount of money. Renaissance chests and coffers of museum quality like the one in here are practically impossible to lay hands on.'

  Then she felt immediately foolish because of course Gabe Considine cousin to the Prince of Illyria and hugely successful magnate wouldn't have to worry about cost.

  He leaned back in his chair and said coolly, 'You can do anything you like.'

  Stunned she blurted 'You've never seen any of my work.' Then realized that he probably wasn't even going to look at her sketches and notes and suggestions.

  ‘So?' His lifted brows made her feel small. 'You dress beautifully. I'm sure you have the style to dress a room as well.'

  Insulted she said 'Not all stylish dressers can decorate a rooms Tell me what you like.'

  He shrugged. ‘1'11 be spending each summer here so I want comfort that defers to history. This is a twelfth-century castle and that's what it should look like. Any modernizing should be discreet' you've experienced the plumbing so you know roughly what needs to be done there. 1'11 be interested to see what you come up with.'

  Coffee drunk he rose to his feet apologizing because he had work to do. 'Webster make sure that Milton gets safely back to her room ' he said to the butler who'd come in to clear the coffee away.

  He smiled at Sara but his eyes reminded her that she was a prisoner.

  Resentfully, Sara watched him go, then said to the butler 'You don't have to babysit me. I'm sure I can find my own way there.'

  ‘lt's no trouble madam ' he said colourlessly.

  Once in her room she sat down and began to make notes of their conversation getting it all down before she forgot.

  It was probably wasted effort.

  She flung down her pen. 61 know just how the princess in the tower must have felt ' she muttered and got to her feet. On the way back she'd glimpsed a flash of colour through a window-flowers. If the butler hadn't locked her in she'd go looking for them.

  To her astonishment she found that the door opened and the lift worked. Walking quietly she passed suits of arbour and more ancestors posing on various horses and accompanied by several women all looking regal and-yes, she thought they d/d look happy.

  And then she must have taken a wrong turning because she came to a doorway that opened out onto a glorious arcaded passageway four-square around a huge light-well open to the sky.

  Sara's delighted gaze was held by pots of geraniums on the sun-warmed stone balustrades. Ancient carved marble columns held up a vaulted ceiling covered in vivid paintings of fruit and flowers and beneath them on the interior wall someone had painted a fresco of people and animals and medieval buildings.

  Enchanted she peered at them for some minutes before her eyes found something she recognized-a careful painting of the standing stone.

  ‘of course ' she breathed noticing sketchy outlines of the mountains above and the defined notch that must be the pass.

  Centuries before someone had painted a representation of the valley and the surrounding lands-possibly of the estates that went with the castle. Intermingled with the panorama were heraldic insignia what appeared to be family trees Latin sentences and scenes of village and castle life all painted with a joyous exuberance that charmed the eye and warmed her heart.

  She looked down past other doors and windows opening out onto the arcade then walked-almost on tiptoe-to the balustrade and looked up to the next floor at another walkway with more geraniums and several large pots of flowers softening the plain white paint there.

  A soft chuckling from below drew her to lean over the balustrade and peer down into a garden divided in four by small rills of water with a fountain in the middle. Although autumn was well on the way, flowers still bloomed in the beds-roses and others she vaguely recognised. The scarlet leaves of the vines climbed towards the sky.

  It was a delicious fantasy-lovely ease for the eye in this solid mass of stone devoted to war and power.

  Built to give pleasure to a woman Sara was sure and envied that unknown wife who'd been loved enough to be accorded this beauty.

  ‘lt was built around the end of the sixteenth century' Gabe said from behind her. 'The incumbent Grand Duchess was delicate so her husband built this for her. He had the columns brought in from a Greek temple on the coast.'

  Sara didn't turn. Eyes on the fountain she said 6He must have loved her.'

  'The lords of the Wolfs Lair always marry for love.'

  But a note of cynicism sharpened his bored tone wounding her in some unknown place.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  HOT with guilt as though she'd been caught peeping through a keyhole Sara straightened up. ‘l'm sorry if I'm intruding ' she said. ‘1 took a wrong turning inside and found myself here and it's so pretty. . . .' Her voice trailed away as she met Gabe's level gaze.

  'The only good thing my bastard cousin did when he took over Illyria ' he said without inflection was to protect the family heirlooms. 1'11 take you to your room.'

  He stood back to let her go ahead. She glanced through an open door as she went and was surprised. No comfortable study this but a modern office set up with computers and enough electronic equipment to staff a complete business.

  'This way ' Gabe said taking Sara's elbow and steering her towards a door. Are you looking for something'?' The way out. But she wasn't going to tell him that. Ignoring the tiny rills of pleasure his light touch
summoned she said crisply ‘1 noticed the flowers through a window and decided to see where they were.'

  He appeared to accept that but at her door he said in a coolly satirical voice 'Give up Sara. Even if you get out of the castle you won't get away. And if you try again 1'11 lock your door on you all the time.'

  With a glittering, defiant look she opened the door and went inside shutting it behind her. She waited for the click but none came' he had to be completely confident that she wouldn't get away.

  Baulked she stared around at the horrible decor and thought of the dining room, its furniture fitting the

  ambience of the castle without pretension and entirely suitable.

  She started to make sketches then remembered Gabe's savage comment about the usurper looking after the family heirlooms. After a moment's thought she pulled the bell-rope.

  Five minutes later she was listening to the butler say 'Yes there are storerooms but I'm sorry I have no idea what's in them.'

  ‘Very well then. Thank you.' No doubt he was still smarting from the telling-off he'd got about letting Marya come up in his place.

  And if anyone knew of the contents of those storerooms it would be Marya she thought grimly.

  Somehow she wasn't surprised when a knock interrupted her a few minutes later. She called out score in ' and braced herself.

  Marya entered saying without preliminaries 'You looking for old stuff?' 'Yes I am ' Marya nodded. 'Grand Duke say is OK. So come.'

  'Grand Duke'?' As they went down in the lift Sara said ‘I thought the dictator abolished all titles in Illyria. Has the Prince restored them'?' Dark eyes half-closed the maid shrugged. Always Grand Duke for us but Prince Alex decide to-to make official'?' She looked at Sara for confirmation that she'd found the right word. When Sara nodded she said slush after you engage to Grand Duke. Two-three days after.'

  'Really'?' A cold emptiness beneath her ribs warned Sara that she wasn't going to like the implications of the maid's offhand comment.

  Marya said Very big. very-' She struggled for a moment finally producing, Very important, yes'?' 'Yes, I suppose it is ' Sara said quietly.

  Had Gabe decided that the woman he'd asked to marry him wouldn't be a suitable wife for a Grand Duke of Illyria?

  The lift stopped and the doors slid open revealing what had probably once been dungeons. No that had to be wrong. After all his cousin had married a New Zealand woman whose only background had been in sciences Not only that Princess Ianthe was a little shy and a horrific accident had given her a slight limp. Yet she was very popular with the Illyrians.

  But then that had been a love match.

  Perhaps the prospect of being confirmed in the title his ancestors had borne with its dynastic overtones had made Gabe look more carefully at the woman he'd fallen passionately in lust with.

  Perhaps he'd decided she was excellent mistress material but unsuitable to be the mother of his children.

  The Prince's wife had a family whereas Sara suspected that she had been born illegitimate. Her mother would never speak of her father.

  Had the suspicion that he might have made a horrendous mistake coloured his attitude to her when the Queen's Blood had disappeared? 'Here ' the maid said unlocking a wooden door with a key so big it must have been the original.

  Sara's first impression of the dark room lit only by a couple of bare bulbs was that it held everything that had ever been discarded in the place for the past hundred years.

  Dismayed she looked at the piles of furniture and said 'We need to catalogue it.'

  Marya gave a massive shrug. ‘1 know where they come from ' she said. ‘1 remember. Now what you want'?' That night another glass of champagne in her hand her body alive with awareness Sara asked indignantly 'Why on earth did he replace all that lovely solid stuff probably made by the castle carpenters or craftsmen from the valley with ghastly second-rate Victorian copies of French rococo furniture? What was he thinking of?' shutting his stamp on the place ' Gabe said lethally.

  She glanced at him. 'You said something about him being illegitimate ' she said tentatively.

  ‘1 called him a bastard but not in that sense. His insistence that he wasn't legitimate was a lie.'

  His tone didn't encourage questions but she asked ‘Why?' anyway.

  ‘lt gave him a certain cachet with the ragtag adventurers and criminals and revolutionaries who initially put him in power. One aristocrat bringing down another is nowhere near as romantic as the despised bastard of the ruling house fighting to free the common people from his degenerate despot of a cousin.'

  ‘1 suppose not ' she said slowly. 'But somehow I got the idea that the deposed Prince wasn't a degenerate despot.'

  He gave an odd smile and tossed back the rest of his glass of wine. 6He wasn't. And the usurper's poor bloody followers soon found out they'd been conned by an expert.'

  ‘done with no taste ' she said reminded that among the thousands of people the dictator had killed were Gabe's grandparents and quite a few of his other relatives. While they'd been looking through the storeroom Marya had told her stories of their valiant fight against the man who'd driven them out of Illyria.

  She said briskly, At least he didn't burn the furniture he discarded. If this were my castle-' Gabe's sardonic smile stopped her.

  Smarting, and angry with herself for giving him the opportunity she doggedly continued sl'd strip all the panelling right back to the wood and polish it. Then I'd catalogue the furniture. From the pretty cursory look I had in the dungeons some of it needs restoring but most is in pretty good condition.'

  He looked at her with something like a glimmer of surprise.

  Defensively, she said sparely you didn't think I'd suggest you go in for modern minimalisml' ‘No ' he said drily. ‘1 suppose I'm surprised that you feel the atmosphere so strongly.'

  Sara gave him a dulcet smile that should have made him very alert. Just because I grew up in the tropics doesn't mean I can't appreciate old things ' she purred with sweet aggression. ‘1 wouldn't have lasted ten minutes in my job if I didn't have some sense of the fitness of things.'

  The minute she'd said it she knew she'd delivered yet another opportunity for him to be scathing, but this time he ignored the chance to remind her that for the past year her job had been on his sufferance.

  Hurriedly she went on ‘Do you want every stick of furniture put back in its original place? Marya is confident that she remembers what room everything was in.'

  His dark brows creased. 'You and she seem to be getting on rather well.'

  ‘Why not? Marya knew her position was totally secure. Sara kept the cynical observation to herself however.

  She probably had the rest of the week here' she had to stick it out and making comments about the woman who'd stolen the Queen's Blood would be counter-productive. The other thing she had to do was not allow herself to be seduced by Gabe again.

  Instinct told her he wouldn't force her. She just had to be unobtrusive and steer away from any comments or behaviour that could be taken as provocative.

  Yet as always Gabe's presence stimulated and challenged her. Just being with him was acutely exciting but even more so was the heady tension that lurked beneath the ebb and flow of the conversation. It was the disturbing aftermath of their passion that morning of heat and dangerous desire and the memory of pleasure so exquisite it shortened her breath even now.

  Her pulses quickened every time the flames flared in the fireplace playing on his boldly chiselled features gilding the bronze skin and autocratic cheekbones. It became an insidious torture whittling away her defences.

  She'd been in the castle barely twenty-four hours yet making love to Gabe had already wiped out the past year of anguish with its hard-won retreat into dull acceptance.

  Every sense honed she fixed her eyes on the leaping firelight but that only served to emphasize the effect of his voice its subtle texture and controlled inflections tempting her. She felt alive again-her mind eager and alert her body sleek wi
th satisfied passion yet yearning for more of the rapturous excitement only Gabe could give her.

  The same body that even now might be pregnant.

  The thought should have terrified her but it added to the dizzy intensity of sitting in this castle home of his forefathers and playing her part in the thrust and parry of conversation with him.

  In the end she couldn't bear it any more. She hid a faked yawn with one hand and stood up. 'Goodnight ' she said quietly.

  He rose, towering over her hooded eyes cool and cynical. ‘sleep well Sara.'

  ‘Fat chance’ she thought inelegantly but the intonation he put into her name sent secret shudders the length of her spine. ‘1 will.'

  At the door of her bedroom he said ‘Andnot to dream too vividly.'

  She faltered but caught herself up and went into her room. ‘1 almost never remember my dreams ' she said lightly.

  'Lucky you.'

  The raw emphasis in his tone stayed with her after the door had closed on him.